Assessment and Treatment of Childhood Problems: A Clinician's Guide » (2nd Edition)

Carolyn S. Schroeder, PhD, is currently an Adjunct Professor at the University of Kansas. She previously held appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Throughout her career, she has trained graduate students, interns, and postdoctoral fellows in the assessment and treatment of children and their families. She is widely recognized for the establishment of a model for psychologists' participation in primary care pediatrics. Her publications reflect her interests in pediatric psychology, service delivery in primary care settings, and the assessment and treatment of children's behavior problems.

Betty N. Gordon, PhD, is Associate Professor Emerita of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has taught graduate-level courses in child assessment and treatment and undergraduate courses in developmental psychopathology. In association with Chapel Hill Pediatric Psychology, she has been involved in the clinical assessment and treatment of children for many years. Her research has focused on children who have been sexually and/or physically abused, with a primary interest in children's memory for traumatic events.

Now in a revised and updated second edition, this popular book guides clinicians and students in assessing and treating common childhood problems. Written in a highly accessible style, the volume presents an overview of healthy development, examines risk and protective factors for psychopathology, and spells out a behaviorally oriented model of assessment and treatment planning for children aged 2-12. Each problem-focused chapter reviews the literature on the topic at hand and provides step-by-step guidelines for practice, illustrated with helpful case examples. Updated throughout with the latest research, the second edition features entirely new chapters on depression, eating problems, and ADHD. Other topics covered include disruptive behaviors, fears and anxieties, disturbances related to toileting and sleep, sibling conflicts, and issues surrounding parental divorce and bereavement. Featuring appendices that describe widely used assessment instruments, the book also contains over 20 reproducible measures, clinical forms, and parent handouts, ready to photocopy and use.

Doody Review Services

Reviewer:Nicholas Greco IV, MS, BCETS, CATSM(Abbott Laboratories)
Description:This second edition provides a revised and fully updated discussion regarding the development, prevalence, chronicity, and treatment of various childhood disorders. The book focuses on children aged 2-12 years old, and this is a population which is of considerable interest within the field. This second edition replaces the previous which was published 11 years ago.
Purpose:The purpose of this book is to reflect the various changes which have occurred in the field of child psychopathology and developmental psychopathology since the last edition. Ultimately this book reflects "the state-of-the-field" including the latest research in the assessment and treatment of children and addresses the diagnostic questions which continuously prevail and are debated such as bipolar disorder. These are unquestionably worthy objectives and of considerable benefit to the field. The book meets and exceeds the authors' objectives.
Audience:Child psychologists and psychiatrists will find this book of considerable importance. It will be an excellent text for advanced students in psychology and psychiatry, as well as researchers. The authors are credible, the writing is non-verbose, detailed yet direct, and results in a solidly relevant compendium of the current research on childhood disorders.
Features:The book is broken down into three sections. The first section discusses the development of psychopathology and assessment to intervention. The second section explores the management of common problems such as eating disorders, habits and tics, sleep, depression, and ADHD. I especially found the chapter on depression and the discussion of bipolar disorder highly valuable and appropriately referenced with the latest findings. The third and final section discusses the management of stressful life events such as divorce, siblings, and bereavement. The tables and figures provide for fairly good illustrations of the major points in the book, and the index is appropriate. The appendices, which give descriptions of assessment instruments and also provide over 20 reproducible measures, clinical forms, and parent handouts for the clinician to photocopy and use, are one of the book's highlights.
Assessment:One of the best written books on assessment and treatment of childhood problems. I highly value and recommend this book as this is one of the year's best contributions to our field.